How much power available for aux lights?

[CB3]

The wife & I have an '07 and an '08 S50. We're wanting to add some aux lights to our forks.

Do you know how much power would be available for them? I'd hate to draw too much power and start having problems. The only other accessories that we run are an autocomm helmet audio system and a low-power phone charger. I'm guessing that these together would draw maybe 10 - 15 watts.

Our primary goal is to be more visible, although providing more illumination of the road would be welcome.

Also, are you running any aux lights that you'd recommend?

Thanks!

[Designer]

My experience with the Intruder/Boulevard motorcycles is that they very little extra charging power available. The system is a Generator type, not Alternator. Thus at idle, they aren't providing much, if any, good charging to the Battery.
Even at cruise RPM, they take care of the electrical draw of the Stock Bike and charging the Battery, but not much above that.

Since you have these two "extras" already. may I suggest you switch over to all running and turnsignal Lighting to LED. Doing so will drop the Power consumption a noteworthy amount, and allow you to add extra lighting you want (LED of course), without robbing the Battery of it's charging.

[CB3]

That's good to know, thank you.

I'll take a look at switching over to LED lighting.

[Designer]

I did that because I needed to. I am running four 35 watt HID headlight systems for my two headlights that I installed some 15 years ago. I had to add an larger Stator to get more charging first,.... then fabricated custom LED Running Lights/Turn signals/Brake lights.

I'll wager nowadays you will find it really easy to find LED bulbs to fit into your Turn signals/Brake lights , etc.

[CB3]

I'll wager nowadays you will find it really easy to find LED bulbs to fit into your Turn signals/Brake lights , etc.

Yeah, I'm hoping that's the case. I'm just starting to search.

[hillsy v2]

I'll wager nowadays you will find it really easy to find LED bulbs to fit into your Turn signals/Brake lights , etc.

Yeah, I'm hoping that's the case. I'm just starting to search.

There's heaps of LED replacement bulbs for indicators and brake lights - search for 1156 for indicators and 1157 for brake / dual filament bulbs.

Just a heads up though - don't expect to reap major gains by changing out indicator and brake bulbs though - they are intermittent circuits and for the most part won't yield any real gains. Plus you have to switch out the relay on the indicators for a non-load / LED one so it's a bit more involved. Running lights and headlights on the other hand are a larger consistent draw so you could recoup some juice there.

I put a voltmeter on my old 1500 and had the aux lights switchable at the RHS switchblock. That way I could monitor the voltage and switch the lights off if they started to drain. It was only ever an issue at idle - these bikes run a permanent magnet stator system which simply doesn't produce enough voltage at idle. Once the revs go up things are OK. I started with 10w LED bulbs then ended up with 35w halogen as the system was fine with them. The voltmeter was wired directly from the battery terminals via a relay powered by switchable power. I had the voltmeter plugged into a switchable power wire from the headlight bucket initially - but when I turned the aux lights on this varied wildly. Best place to monitor voltage is at the battery.

[CB3]

I put a voltmeter on my old 1500 and had the aux lights switchable at the RHS switchblock. That way I could monitor the voltage and switch the lights off if they started to drain. It was only ever an issue at idle - these bikes run a permanent magnet stator system which simply doesn't produce enough voltage at idle. Once the revs go up things are OK. I started with 10w LED bulbs then ended up with 35w halogen as the system was fine with them. The voltmeter was wired directly from the battery terminals via a relay powered by switchable power. I had the voltmeter plugged into a switchable power wire from the headlight bucket initially - but when I turned the aux lights on this varied wildly. Best place to monitor voltage is at the battery.

This is super helpful, I hadn't thought to test like this. Thanks much!

I'll definitely make sure to do this before going on any long rides.

[hillsy v2]

I put a voltmeter on my old 1500 and had the aux lights switchable at the RHS switchblock. That way I could monitor the voltage and switch the lights off if they started to drain. It was only ever an issue at idle - these bikes run a permanent magnet stator system which simply doesn't produce enough voltage at idle. Once the revs go up things are OK. I started with 10w LED bulbs then ended up with 35w halogen as the system was fine with them. The voltmeter was wired directly from the battery terminals via a relay powered by switchable power. I had the voltmeter plugged into a switchable power wire from the headlight bucket initially - but when I turned the aux lights on this varied wildly. Best place to monitor voltage is at the battery.

This is super helpful, I hadn't thought to test like this. Thanks much!

I'll definitely make sure to do this before going on any long rides.

No worries. I found having a voltmeter to be the most useful thing with regards to being on the front foot with charging issues.

I just wired in a cheap one from China and zip tied it to my handlebars.

One like this:




I mounted it in between the risers on my 1500 - you can just see it here (sorry - don't have a better pic):